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The Far Side
Wiener Dog Art, one of many Far Side collections published in the United States, features an artist stamping a paint-covered dachshund on a canvas.
Author(s)	Gary Larson
Current status / schedule	Ended
Launch date	January 1, 1980
End Date	January 1, 1995
Syndicate(s)	Chronicle Features (1980–1985) Universal Press Syndicate (1985–1995)
Genre(s)	Humor, Satire
Preceded by	Nature's Way

The Far Side is a popular one-panel syndicated comic created by Gary Larson. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, or the search for meaning in life. The strip ran from January 1, 1980 to January 1, 1995. Reruns are still printed in many newspapers. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... This article concerns the Far Side comic strip. ... Image File history File links Wdogart. ... The dachshund is a short-legged, elongated dog breed of the hound family. ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... Gary Larson (b. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... Universal Press Syndicate, an Andrews McMeel Universal company, provides syndication for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comics, and various other content. ... Natures Way is a little known cartoon drawn by Gary Larson in the late 1970s that started his career in cartooning. ... Print Syndication is a form of syndication in which news articles, columns, or comic strips are made available to newspapers and magazines. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Gary Larson (b. ... Max Ernst. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Around the world, The Far Side is perhaps better known for the compilation books and merchandise (especially calendars, T-shirts, greeting cards, and mugs) than it is for its original incarnation as a daily newspaper feature.^{[citation needed]} A calendar is a system for assigning calendar dates to days. ... T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ... A greeting card is a folded card featuring a message of greeting or other sentiment. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The series was preceded by a similar panel called Nature's Way, also by Larson. Natures Way is a little known cartoon drawn by Gary Larson in the late 1970s that started his career in cartooning. ...

The comic

Most of the Far Side cartoons are a single rectangular panel, occasionally split into small sections of four, six or eight for the purposes of a storyline, with the caption or dialogue usually appearing under the panel as typed text (although word-balloons were sometimes utilized for conversations). Sunday comics were done in watercolor or colored pencils, with captions hand written in Larson's own cursive. Cursive is any style of handwriting which is designed for writing down notes and letters by hand. ...

Most of Larson's comics relied on some combination of a visual and verbal gag, rather than just one or the other.

Larson was recognized for his work on the strip with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1985 and 1988, and their Reuben Award for 1990 and 1994^{[citation needed]}. The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists created in 1946. ... The Reuben Awards, named for Rube Goldberg, are presented each year by the National Cartoonists Society. ...

Criticism

Larson's comic has been attacked by people and groups to whom it caused offense. Several Far Side jokes have involved violence and murder, often between animals or humans and animals. Though not visually gory, some readers have found such strips to be too gruesome and dark for the comics page.

One cartoon shows two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" The Jane Goodall Institute considered this to be in bad taste, and its lawyers drafted a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate in which it described the cartoon as an "atrocity." It was stymied, however, by Goodall herself, who revealed that she found the cartoon amusing. Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon have been donated to the Institute. (Larson was attacked by Frodo, a chimp described by Goodall as a bully, while visiting Gombe National Park in 1988. Goodall commented, "He somehow managed to get news of the cartoon.")^{[citation needed]} Dame Jane Goodall, DBE, PhD, (born 3 April 1934 as Valerie Jane Morris Goodall) is an English UN Messenger of Peace, primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist. ...

Larson has occasionally engaged in self-censorship, acknowledging that some of his cartoons were seriously over the line. The Prehistory Of The Far Side shows a number of these.

In The Complete Far Side as well as The Prehistory Of The Far Side, interspersed with the comics, there are letters from angry citizens to newspaper publishers, demanding the removal of The Far Side from their pages, and often citing a canceled subscription if this was not met. However, these protesters constituted a small enough minority that papers were able to continue to run the strip, with the matter becoming moot when compilation books were produced. Larson himself often laughs at the controversies of his comic as evidenced in The Prehistory of the Far Side, in which he writes that these people have usually misunderstood the cartoon. About the Book The PreHistory of The Far Side was written by Gary Larson, is 288 pages long, and was first published in August of 1989 by the publishing company Andrews and McMeel. ...

Publications

Gary Larson has produced 23 Far Side books, all of which have made it to the New York Times bestseller list. The cartoons were first collected in small books (see list below), and some were then republished in larger best-of collections (The Far Side Galleries). Additional best-of collections were published, such as The Prehistory of The Far Side, culminating in the final, most complete publication, The Complete Far Side. The New York Times bestseller list is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. ...

Collections

• September 1982: The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1200-2)
• August 1983: Beyond The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1149-9)
• August 1984: In Search of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2060-9)
• April 1985: Bride of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2066-8)
• August 1985: Valley of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2067-6)
• August 1986: It Came from The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2073-0)
• April 1987: Hound of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2087-0)
• October 1987: The Far Side Observer (ISBN 0-8362-2098-6)
• July 1988: Night of the Crash Test Dummies (ISBN 0-8362-2049-8)
• April 1989: Wildlife Preserves (ISBN 0-8362-1842-6)
• October 1990: Wiener Dog Art (ISBN 0-8362-1865-5)
• November 1991: Unnatural Selections (ISBN 0-8362-1881-7)
• November 1992: Cows of Our Planet (ISBN 0-8362-1701-2)
• November 1993: The Chickens are Restless (ISBN 0-8362-1717-9)
• November 1994: The Curse of Madame "C" (ISBN 0-8362-1763-2)
• October 1996: Last Chapter and Worse (ISBN 0-8362-2131-1; published after the end of the strip)

Other books

• November 1984: The Far Side Gallery (ISBN 0-8362-2062-5)
• October 1986: The Far Side Gallery 2 (ISBN 0-8362-2085-4)
• October 1988: The Far Side Gallery 3 (ISBN 0-8362-1831-0)
• January 1989: The Prehistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit (ISBN 0-8362-1851-5)
• October 1993: The Far Side Gallery 4 (ISBN 0-8362-1724-1)
• September 1995 The Far Side Gallery 5 (ISBN 0-8362-0425-5)
• April 1998: There's a Hair in My Dirt! (ISBN 0-06-093274-0; not a collection of single panels)
• August 2003: The Complete Far Side: 1980-1994 (ISBN 0-7407-2113-5)

The five Far Side Galleries are the most popular of the books, each of them collecting together the best cartoons from three smaller books, along with a humorous foreword by a celebrity fan, including Stephen King, Robin Williams, and Jane Goodall. The Far Side Gallery is an anthology of Gary Larsons The Far Side comic strips. ... The Far Side Gallery 2 is the second anthology of Gary Larsons The Far Side comic strips. ... The Far Side Gallery 3 is the third anthology of Gary Larsons The Far Side comic strips. ... The Far Side Gallery 5 is the fifth and final anthology of Gary Larsons The Far Side comic strips. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... This article is about the American actor and comedian; for other people named Robin Williams, see Robin Williams (disambiguation). ... Dame Jane Goodall, DBE, PhD, (born 3 April 1934 as Valerie Jane Morris Goodall) is an English UN Messenger of Peace, primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist. ...

In 1989, The Prehistory Of The Far Side was published to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the strip. In this book, Gary Larson discussed the development of The Far Side, the public's reaction to it, and presented a selection of his personal favorites from the cartoon's history, as well as previously unpublished sketches and strips rejected by his editor. Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ...

In 2003, The Complete Far Side was released, which contains nearly every Far Side comic ever published, although some cartoons written for Christmas cards were not included. The collection is also missing parody art pieces from Wiener Dog Art, some material from The Prehistory of the Far Side, and a panel run for a caption writing contest in the Telegram-Tribune newspaper. The set was released in two volumes (1980–1986 and 1987–1994), with a foreword by Steve Martin and an introduction by Larson's long-time editor Jake Morrisey. The first-edition hardcover boxed set weighs nineteen and a half pounds (8.8 kilograms). Some of the comics were altered for this book, either featuring a different caption or correcting errors or simply colorised. In 2003 Gary Larson drew a cover for The New Yorker magazine,^[1] a prestigious offer he said he couldn't refuse.^[2] Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tribune is a daily broadsheet newspaper that covers San Luis Obispo County, California. ... For other uses, see Steve Martin (disambiguation). ... Look up pound in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Kg redirects here. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see New Yorker. ...

On Television

In 1994, Larson produced an animated special, Tales from the Far Side, featuring his art style and gags from the strips. He followed up with a sequel in 1997. Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Gary Larsons Tales From the Far Side is an animated short film created in 1994 by Gary Larson, based on his The Far Side comic strip. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ...

Online

It is difficult to find many Far Side cartoons online, since Larson (and/or his publishers and lawyers) has been very effective at persuading people to not infringe on his copyright. There is a widely distributed letter online, attributed to Gary Larson, in which he explains the "emotional cost" to him of people displaying his cartoons on their websites, and asks them to stop doing so. Time Warner Inc. ... For the fish called lawyer, see Burbot. ... Not to be confused with copywriting. ...

In Popular Culture

• Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
• In Cheers, Woody looks at a newspaper depressed. When the regulars ask why he's down he says its because he doesn't get the Far Side. After they explain it to him, he tells them he was just disappointed his newspaper doesn't carry it, and now they made him feel stupid.
• Strong Sad from Homestar Runner dresses up as the fat kid from The Far Side in the 2007 Halloween special.^[3]
• Darkwing Duck: In the episode "Beauty and the Beet" (September 9, 1991), two Larsonian type scientists called Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson are featured.^[4]
• Darkwing Duck: In the episode "Twin Beaks" (November 7, 1991), an alien cow states, "We come from the planet Larson on the Far Side of the galaxy."^[5]
• Tom Clancy, wrote in The Bear and The Dragon, "The Early Bird was the clipping service the government provided for senior officials, but for breakfast Swordsman preferred the real paper, complete with cartoons. Like many, Ryan lamented the retirement of Gary Larson and the attendant loss of the morning Far Side, but Jack understood the pressure of enforced daily output."^{[citation needed]}
• In The Simpsons episode "The Homega Man", Homer is in the Withstandinator bomb shelter reading Far Side comics when Springfield is destroyed. As he flips the pages of the Off The Wall Calendar he states "Oh, a Gary Larson calendar …. I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, ha! Ha! Ha! I don't get it...".
• In Scrubs, episode My Intern's Eyes, there is a scene in which JD fantasizes about a hospital where the patients are treated like horses and the doctors carry shotguns. This is a parody of a Far Side cartoon. JD cocks the shotgun as he says to a patient with a broken leg: "I am sorry Mr. Larson, but I do not like the look of that leg."^{[citation needed]}
• In Family Guy, episode 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter, Peter buys an entire rack of greeting cards on credit and gives Meg a Far Side one of a Vulture wearing a cowboy hat which Meg says is "kind of funny". In Lois Kills Stewie, Stewie comments that his new presidential portrait is better than the one Gary Larson drew which shows him drawn in a Far Side style conversing with an anthropomorphic chicken.^{[citation needed]}
• In War of the Worlds the closing credits for every episode in the first season is a reference to The Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson, courtesy of Chronicle Features. Several cutout Far Side comic strips are seen briefly in “The Resurrection”, tacked onto a bulletin board in Suzanne McCullough’s university office; however, since this is only seen in one episode, it’s unknown why the credit remains throughout the season.^[6]
• In the episode "Emily In Wonderland" on the TV show Gilmore Girls, Lorelai tells Rory that whenever she talks to her mother all she hears is "blah blah blah Ginger."
• Australian comedians, Roy and HG, when commentating State of Origin football matches, would refer to Gary Larson (rugby league) as being "on the far side" of the playing arena - a joke aimed at his name being shared with famous cartoonist Gary Larson ("and the ball is passed to Gary Larson... on the far side...").^{[citation needed]}
• In his book, Dave Barry In Cyberspace, Dave Barry wrote an article titled, The Farside comes to life in Oregon which tells of a Far Side like real story of dead whale removal and large amounts of explosivies.^[7]
• The Worth1000 website for image manipulation contests has featured Far Side contests where Far Side cartoons made real^[8].

-phobia. ... This article is about the TV series. ... Strong Sad is a character in the Homestar Runner series of animated cartoons. ... Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. ... Darkwing Duck is an Emmy-nominated American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991-1995 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured an eponymous superhero anthropomorphic duck with the alter ego of Drake Mallard (voiced... is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar. ... Darkwing Duck is an Emmy-nominated American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991-1995 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured an eponymous superhero anthropomorphic duck with the alter ego of Drake Mallard (voiced... is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar. ... Green people redirects here. ... For general information about the genus, including other species of cattle, see Bos. ... Gary Larson (b. ... For the member of the Irish folk band The Clancy Brothers, see Tom Clancy (singer) and for the American Celticist, see Thomas Owen Clancy. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Scrubs is an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning American situation comedy/comedy-drama that premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence and is produced by Touchstone Television. ... My Interns Eyes is the 94th episode of the American sitcom Scrubs. ... Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. ... “8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter” is an episode from the fourth season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy which guest-starred Joanna Garcia as Stewie’s babysitter, Liddane. ... Lois Kills Stewie is the conclusion of the two-part 100th Episode story arc of the FOX animated television series Family Guy (Part 1 being Stewie Kills Lois), and also features cameos with characters from American Dad!, another animated comedy series created and produced by Seth MacFarlane. ... War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Gary Larson (b. ... Gilmore Girls is a long-running, Emmy Award winning, and Golden Globe nominated American television drama/comedy created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. ... Roy and HG Roy & HG are a noted Australian comedy duo, with Greig Pickhaver, former Flinders University student politician, taking the role of HG Nelson and John Doyle as Rampaging Roy Slaven. ... State of Origin is the name used in Australia for sporting events or other competitions which involve teams from different States or Territories. ... Gary Larson is an Australian former rugby league player best known for his years with the North Sydney Bears and representing the state of Queensland in the prestigious State of Origin competition. ... Gary Larson (b. ... For the English musician, see Dave Berry (musician). ... Dynamite was used to blow up a rotting beached whale, which had some unintended consequences. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

See also

• Thagomizer
• Strigiphilus garylarsoni

Now this end is called the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons. ... Binomial name <><> </></>< />< >{{{}}}, {{{}}}</ >>} The Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a biting louse of a genus only found on owls. ...

Notes

1. ^ The Times cover 17-Nov-2003
2. ^ The Lawrence Journal-World
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ List of Darkwing Duck characters
5. ^ List of Darkwing Duck characters
6. ^ War of The Worlds Trivia
7. ^ Dead Whale Removal Site and Video Link
8. ^ Worth 1000 Unauthorized Far Side Tributes

This article includes a list of characters from the animated series Darkwing Duck. ... This article includes a list of characters from the animated series Darkwing Duck. ... War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. ...

External links

• Gary Larson's The Far Side (official site)
• Toonopedia entry on The Far Side
• Gary Larson at the Internet Movie Database
• NCS Awards